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“Um, sir,” I said to the cabbie. “I need you to take me someplace else.”
“Sure. Where to?”
“West Virginia.”
Fear shimmied through me as I approached the first gate. What if my watch didn’t work? I’d have no way of getting into the house. I’d already sent the cab away after charging the obscenely high fare to my credit card, along with a generous tip. I had my phone so I could always call for help.
I held my breath as I put my watch against the keypad next to the gate. Relief flooded my nerve endings when it opened, but the feeling was temporary as I hurried through the second gate and then ran to the front door. Blessedly, it too opened.
“Vincent!” I called the second I was inside. The house wasn’t in lockdown mode, so that had to be a good sign, right?
I ran past the garage and into the kitchen, which was empty. There was no sign of Mickey or Minnie as I darted up the stairs. “Vincent!” I shouted again, and just as I rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, I slammed against a hard body. I sagged in relief as familiar hands came up to grab my arms.
“Nathan, what the hell-”
I cut him off with a hard kiss. “Thank you, God,” I whispered just before I kissed him again. Vincent kissed me back, and then he was pressing me back against the wall as he consumed my mouth.
“Fuck, no time for this,” he said as he grabbed my hand. I saw him snag a black duffle bag off the floor. He dragged me down the stairs. “Is your car in the driveway?” he asked impatiently.
“What?”
“Your car?” he repeated.
“I didn’t drive. I took a cab.”
“Good,” was all he said, and then he was leading me to the garage. “Get in,” he said as he motioned to his car.
“Vincent-”
“There’s no time. In the car.” His eyes caught mine briefly as he went to the trunk. “Please, Nate.”
I held my tongue and climbed into the front passenger seat. I was immediately greeted with two distinct meows, and I turned to see Mickey and Minnie watching me from separate pet carriers in the back seat. The trunk slammed closed and then Vincent was climbing into the front seat. He hit the garage door opener as he started the car up. It took less than a minute to get out of the driveway. Vincent pulled the car to a stop by the end of the curving road leading to his driveway. As far as I knew, it was the only one in or out. I watched as he glanced at his watch.
“What…what are we doing?” I asked in confusion as we sat there.
“Need to make sure no one comes up the road,” Vincent murmured.
“Why-”
That was all I got out before I heard a huge booming sound. I jerked my attention to the right and saw a black plume of smoke along with a huge fireball shoot into the air.
In the same direction where Vincent’s house was.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Was that your house?”
Before I could even process what was happening, Vincent was dragging me into his arms and his mouth was closing over mine. I forgot all about the explosion, the cats, and everything in between as he kissed me.
“Missed you,” he said softly against my mouth.
I knew I needed to figure out what the hell was happening, but at the moment, I didn’t care. “Me too.” I practically crawled across the console to get to him. He eventually pulled back from the kiss and urged me back into my own seat.
“Buckle up,” he said with a wink, and then he was getting the car on the road.
I did as he said. “What’s going on, Vincent?”
“What are you doing here, Nathan?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“I talked to Everett. He said he hadn’t heard from you in a while and I started to worry-” I stopped talking when Vincent began shaking his head.
“Meddling bastard,” he said with a smile.
“What?” I asked in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“He pulled a broken watch on you, baby.”
“What?” I had entered the Twilight Zone, because nothing was making sense to me.
“I talked to Everett this morning…and every day for the last two weeks,” Vincent explained.
“You did? Then why did he…”
My brain registered what Vincent had said about the broken watch. The watch I’d broken weeks ago to scare Vincent into coming back to check on me.
“That bastard,” I said in disbelief. “He conned me.”
“Yeah, he did,” Vincent said with a laugh. “Saved me a trip to Charleston, though.” He motioned to the watch on my wrist. “That asshole knew the first thing I’d do after leaving the house was figure out where you were – probably assumed we’d pass each other on the way.”
